Knitted Color

It is gray outside. Not so cold anymore, but now it's drizzling and raining and I've been on a dishcloth knitting spree. Bringing a little sunshine into our kitchen.

They are such fun and finite little projects and perfect for trying out new patterns.

I have a feeling there will be more, but I wanted to share some of the pattern links with you.

For the yellow dishcloth above I used the "Andalutheean" Pattern you can find here. Easy to knit and finished quickly.

The multi-colored dishcloth above and the yellow one below have very similar patterns. You can find them here and here. Both of them easy as well.

The multi-colored dishcloth in the picture below actually is the thickest of them all and now that it's finished I really like it, but it was a pain to knit. Not because it was a difficult pattern, but for some reason the yarn didn't give on this one and it seemed really tight, sort of like when I first learned to knit and always had a death grip on my yarn. I was glad it was a small project... If you want to give it a try, the pattern is here.

And here they are! Ready to make doing dishes (not my super favorite thing to do) a bit more cheery.

Wishing you sunshine and color and cheeriness for your day today!!

❧ Silke

Busy, busy...

Dearest friends and readers, I've had a hard time getting back into blogging (as you have probably noticed), not because I have lost interest, but because I have been very busy with lots of fun things.

Here's the reason:

Fall has started making an entrance, even if only very cautiously here in the south. It's still quite warm out, so how can I tell?

Well, the first sign in our garden is the fig tree losing its leaves. The first years I thought it had some disease every time, because it is the first tree to lose its leaves every fall. By now I know it is the signal that the long summer is coming to a close.

A few leaves have started turning color (although the real gorgeous fall colors don't arrive here until November) and our beautyberry bush is producing the most intensely colored berries.

But...summer hasn't left yet either and I have been indulging my zinnia love every day! Daniel just threw out some seeds in June or July and our garden is filled with them now.

 So many that I can have beautiful bunches of flowers in the house all the time.

These photos also show a few of my favorite things. The tiny blue vase we got at an art fair, the dragonfly fetish we bought on the Zuni Indian reservation, the beautiful green ceramic piece Daniel brought from Minneapolis a few years ago,...

... a pretty little candle holder we brought back from Oaxaca, Mexico and my new favorite tea cup my sister-in-law sent me for my birthday.

Speaking of fall, it makes me want to make things. Every year I get this urge to be über-creative around this time of the year and this year I've been indulging fully. Daniel will spend a couple of months teaching in the south of France this winter where it can get very (very!) cold. So I knit him a hat and scarf to keep him nice and toasty with gorgeous wool yarn I bought in Münster on our last visit. Turned out nicely, don't you think?

I've also been trying some new things such as making pickled okra and bread & butter pickles.

The pickles are delicious and the okra I just made yesterday, so we have to wait a little before tasting it. Canning things has always intimidated me, but this year was the year to just forge ahead and do it. It all went perfectly!

My inspiration? My dad who decided he was going to learn how to preserve all the different kinds of plums in his garden. He made enough jam to last him through the entire year until the next harvest! And then some...

Also yesterday, I sewed my first pillow complete with piping around the edge. It turned out beautifully. I'm going to make another one this week. Sewing always seems like such a big deal to me until I actually sit at the sewing machine - then I just love it!

I promise there will be more pictures of Europe, but for now I had to show you all the things that delight me around here. Life truly is good!

Wishing you all a most wonderful week!!

❧ Silke

Timeless design

Daniel and I received this beautiful Alessi espresso maker and two of those pretty little cups for our wedding! As you found out yesterday, that was 23 years ago!

I still use them frequently and to me they always look modern. Definitely a timeless design.

Wishing you a day so beautiful that time stands still!

❧ Silke

A little weirdness...

A few days ago I finished knitting this cheery little dishcloth for our kitchen. It looks great (our kitchen is painted white and the walls are yellow) and it makes me happy every time I look at it. 

Now for the weirdness: I haven't used it yet. I have another (store-bought) dishcloth next to it, which I use for the actual dirty work. When I buy new towels or dishcloths, I have no trouble using them. In fact, I look forward to it. But when I make them I somehow don't want to get them dirty. Ever.

Silly, I know. But there you have it. ;-)

❧ Silke

Follow-up

So, yesterday's post on planning and lists and following those got some interesting and helpful responses. Thank you!! 

And ... as it so often happens, I checked in with a wonderful blog from Australia called Down To Earth, a blog about a simpler life with lots of really useful info (I regularly make their laundry powder). While I will never have the same simple lifestyle Rhonda and her husband have, just visiting her blog makes me breathe deeper and slow down. And it always inspires me!

Today I came upon one of her posts called "Daily and weekly routines." Click here if you want to read it. In it she talks about her very flexible routine and planning, and she also talks about the issue many of us have with feeling guilty if we knit or do anything that is useful, but at the same time really fun for us. A perfect post for me yesterday!!

It also reminded me how much I love to be in our kitchen and how cooking or baking completely centers me. Last night, I totally enjoyed making the spice rub for steak we were grilling,

and prepping the asparagus and grape tomatoes for roasting (8 to 10 minutes at 450℉- yum!), tossing them by hand in olive oil and a little bit of sea salt.

And I can't believe what joy it gives me wearing the apron I sewed last summer,

and the using the dish cloths I knitted. Soon I'll have to make more as these are starting to become a little stained and worn. Plus, I have another apron all cut out and just have to get busy sewing.

Once again I was reminded that it's really the little things that bring me pleasure and comfort. They are so much more important than any to-do-list could ever be! And in the end, (almost) everything gets done anyway... with or without a list.

More and more I want to live an inspired life rather than an organized one! And I think that's alright.

Finally!!

For a long time now, I've wanted a pretty apron, what's more than that, I wanted to make it myself. So, a few weeks ago, I went out and found a pattern and fabric I loved and cut out all the pieces. And then it sat. And sat.

Until a couple of days ago that is. I decided it was time to make this apron and see if I was still able to sew. And I found that sewing is much like bicycling for me. Once learned, it seems to have stayed with me for all these years that I didn't touch my sewing machine.

The fact that it was an easy pattern also helped. I only had to open up one seam that I had messed up. Not bad! And the end result?!? I love it! What do you think?

I don't know what took me so long to start on this. And ... you guessed it ... I've already laid out the fabric for another one with a different pattern. I find that housework is so much more enjoyable with a pretty apron...

P.S. I have been painting again and should have something to show you soon. I'm so excited!

Happy Kitchen Color

I love our kitchen and everywhere I look, there are little pockets of color that make me happy. From the garden,

from my family in Germany,
from Oaxaca, Mexico,
from the thrift store and the garden,
and from good friends in Germany (it's a fun herb chart - you point the lovely lady at a dish and it tells you which herbs will taste good with it).
Color makes me happy!

We are almost back from our trip and I cannot wait to check in with you all!!

Of Decluttering, Knitting & Crocheting

What do you do when your mind feels overwhelmed with all there is to do and to think of? I make lists, I declutter, and I knit and crochet. That's what I did on Sunday and yesterday.

After making lists of what I was going to cook this week, scheduling a couple of blog posts, and coming up with a general to do list, I started in on the kitchen. It wasn't bad at all, just enough to make me feel I didn't have enough clear space.

Here is the counter above the sink before

and after (so much better!),
the area next to the sink,

the main kitchen counter that tends to become a catchall for anything and everything,

and the top of the microwave (please ignore fingerprints...).

It's not so much about the outward clarity but about the process of physically putting things away, organizing, regrouping and cleaning that somehow allows me to do the same mentally. Do you experience that, too?

Knitting and crocheting does the same for me. The rhythm of moving the needles allows me to think and process. So, with all the mental organizing I was doing, I got into knitting dish cloths (something I hadn't heard of before) and

finished another pair of very sunny potholders.

These red and turquoise beauties had been done for awhile, but I decided to add a dishcloth to them as well. You can find all of them in my Etsy shop.
I still haven't made it back into my studio, but that's alright. I'll get there when I have the peace of mind to sit down and create. In the meantime, I am working on two scarves, yet another dishcloth and am continuing to organize around the house. All in all, a pretty good couple of days!